Fact versus fiction, here’s the true story behind the Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as the contentious business mogul.
The Apprentice (2024) movie is a biographical drama tracing the early years of Donald Trump as he transforms from a young businessperson to an omnipresent public figure. The events of this film highlight the formative years of the 1970s and 1980s in Trump’s real estate business and his association with notorious lawyer Roy Cohn which shaped his tactics towards power, publicity, and litigation. It is, at the same time, a character study and a chronicle of Trump’s early business decisions, which formed the groundwork for the man who would later become one of the most polarising figures in modern history. Here is everything you need to know about the real story behind The Apprentice (2024) as well as its cast, release date, official trailer and more.
Helmed by Ali Abbasi, who wrote it with Maren Louise Käehne, the film stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong (Kendall Roy of HBO’s Succession) as Cohn in lead roles.
The Apprentice (2024): The real story behind the movie
Donald Trump’s early ambitions
At the start of the 1970s, young Donald Trump, son of real estate tycoon Fred Trump was eager to take his family’s business beyond New York City’s outer boroughs. While Fred (played by Martin Donovan who you might know from Christopher Nolan films like Memento and Tenet) made his money developing affordable housing projects, Donald wanted to get into Manhattan’s high-end real estate market in order to earn himself a reputation as a powerful business leader.
This interest in wealth and glory pushed Donald Trump’s ambitions further. However, his business practices even then were not free from controversies. In 1973, the US Department of Justice indicted Trump Management, his family’s real estate company, for discriminatory practices against African-American tenants. A federal investigation claimed that Trump Management kept black families away from renting apartments while giving preference to white tenants, a case that could have destroyed the family name of the Trumps.
Roy Cohn: The mentor with ruthless tactics
It was during this time that a champion emerged for Trump in the form of Roy Cohn, an attorney infamous for the ruthlessness of his methods. Cohn was a man who had been both partially responsible for the infamous espionage case of the Rosenbergs in 1953, for which they were executed, and closely associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the purges of anti-Communism in the 1950s (for more, read McCarthyism).
This relationship between Trump and Cohn is the central theme of the movie. On-screen, the first scene of their meeting takes place in an exclusive Manhattan restaurant where Trump speaks of his frustration with the federal investigation into his family business, which is an accusation by the government. Cohn, sensing the ambition and readiness of Trump to play by the rules and then break them, offers himself as Trump’s legal counsellor and coach.
Cohn schooled Trump in approaching challenges with a combative mindset: his three principles were always attack, never retreat, and always stand your ground, even if you have lost. This philosophy became the basis of Trump’s public persona. With Cohn, Trump’s real estate operations became bolder and bolder. He launched high-profile projects: renovated what was then the Commodore Hotel and is now the Grand Hyatt, and built Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
The impact of their relationship
The partnership of Trump and Cohn was not only professional but a personal alliance based on mutual benefit. Cohn provided Trump with legal protection and political connections to help him secure deals and manage legal issues. In return, Trump opened to him a network of rich influential figures.
But Cohn’s private life was strewn with scandals, and among them were his disbarment and public outing as a closeted homosexual in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. Even so, Trump publicly broke with him only when the lawyer’s influence began to wane ᅳ a step that reminded one of Trump’s later modus operandi of casting off those no longer serving his purposes.
The real events depicted in the film
The Apprentice opens with the real-life federal lawsuit against Trump Management, a pivotal moment in Donald Trump’s early career. The case was eventually settled without an admission of wrongdoing, but the film depicts how Trump leveraged his connections with Cohn to manage the fallout and maintain his public image.
Another significant aspect of the movie is Trump’s ability to use media attention to his advantage. As seen in the film, Trump courted journalists and cultivated an image as a brash, successful entrepreneur, even when his projects were financially risky or legally contentious. This manipulation of media perception became one of Trump’s key tools throughout his career.
The film also explores Trump’s personal life, including his marriage to Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova, who rose to fame with 2021’s comedy movie Borat Subsequent Moviefilm). It shows how Trump’s relationships were often transactional, driven by status and appearances. His marriage to Ivana, a Czech model and businesswoman, was an important part of building his public image in the 1980s. There is even an extremely disturbing rape scene in the movie.
Themes of power, influence, and control
At its heart, The Apprentice is not just a Donald Trump biopic and not even a dramatisation of his relationship with Cohn — it is a commentary on the dynamics of power, influence, and ambition in America. Trump and Cohn embody the idea that success in US politics and business often comes at the cost of integrity and conscience. The film depicts Trump as a product of the 1980s — this was the time in America when greed, ambition, and personal branding were in and fairness and transparency were out — so to speak.
The movie is also a reflection on how powerful figures like Trump can mobilise their connections, media narratives and legal measures to craft personas that common people can identify with in some sort of way. For instance, while Trump has wealth that would dwarf most Americans’ imagination, his brash attitude, anti-establishment rhetoric and claims of being a self-made success story resonates with many common people in the country.
Trump’s rise to fame during this period set him up for his future political career, where strategies of media manipulation, attack tactics, and incessant self-promotion would be even more apparent.
The Apprentice (2024) movie official trailer
Watch The Apprentice (2024) movie’s official trailer here:
The Apprentice movie: Where to watch?
The Apprentice movie will release in theatres.
The Apprentice movie release date
The Apprentice movie release date in India is 18 October, while in the US and many other markets, it released on 11 October.
The Apprentice movie full cast
Besides Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Martin Donovan, The Apprentice movie features Mark Rendall and Joe Pingue in the cast.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The movie follows Donald Trump’s rise as a businessman in 1970s and 80s New York, focusing on his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn and the challenges he faced in building his real estate empire.
The film was released theatrically in the US and many other markets on 11 October, 2024. In India, it will release on 18 October.
‘The Apprentice’ is the upcoming Trump movie that follows a young Donald Trump in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Written by
Kshitij is a journalism graduate who did not initially intend to become a film critic, but such are the vagaries of destiny. Now, Kshitij is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild, bringing expertise and experience in evaluating entertainment content with him. Additionally, he serves as a jury member on the Critics' Choice Awards in India. When he's not busy wielding words, catch him nose-deep in books or joyfully lost in the realms of gaming and photography.
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